Thank you all for your kind wishes. As my friend Martin reported via Retro, the malaria was quickly cured but the cellulitis proved a little more refractory and I’m still not free of it. I can now walk again, but the antibiotics haven’t stopped the infection and so the right foot and calf are still in constant pain. I’ve been discharged from the Sangha Hospital and tomorrow will take up a kind offer from Khun Salil, one of my Abhidhamma teachers, to be tested and treated at a much better equipped private hospital. I regret that it may be a few more days yet before I return to full participation in this forum.

Still, things could be a lot worse: in the bed opposite mine at the Sangha Hospital there was a Belgian monk who was likewise admitted for cellulitis; unfortunately his case was complicated by diabetes, which resulted in his having his right leg amputated.

“Householder, who would claim even a moment’s health, while yet carrying this body about, what else is he but a fool?”(Nakulapitasutta)

Best wishes,Dhammanando Bhikkhu

...and this thought arose in the mind of the Blessed One:“Who lives without reverence lives miserably.”— Uruvela Sutta, A.ii.20

It were endless to dispute upon everything that is disputable.— William Penn Some Fruits of Solitude,

This offering maybe right, or wrong, but it is one, the other, both, or neither!Blog,-Some Suttas Translated,Ajahn Chah."Others will misconstrue reality due to their personal perspectives, doggedly holding onto and not easily discarding them; We shall not misconstrue reality due to our own personal perspectives, nor doggedly holding onto them, but will discard them easily. This effacement shall be done."

This is good news, thankful to hear it. May you recover fully. I would be very interested to learn what you think about Malaria at this point. Especially how one should best prepare to deal with this issues if intending to be in Thailand for an extended period. I would appreciate your thoughts when you have the time for it.

Looking forward to that article translation also, if that ever resurfaces. I very much appreciate all of the perspective on the teachings and advice you have generously provided. Thanks again.

nathan wrote:I would be very interested to learn what you think about Malaria at this point. Especially how one should best prepare to deal with this issues if intending to be in Thailand for an extended period. I would appreciate your thoughts when you have the time for it.

It's not difficult to avoid it and merely requires that one stay away from malarial regions (i.e. most of the Cambodian border districts and certain of the less inhabited Burmese and Laotian border districts). This is what I did for the first 13 years, but then a couple of years ago I went to spend the rains retreat on a private island that was close enough to Cambodia to be visited by malarial mosquitoes from there. It hits you very hard when you get it for the first time, but if properly treated subsequent occurrences will get milder and milder and less and less frequent.

Best wishes,Dhammanando Bhikkhu

...and this thought arose in the mind of the Blessed One:“Who lives without reverence lives miserably.”— Uruvela Sutta, A.ii.20

It were endless to dispute upon everything that is disputable.— William Penn Some Fruits of Solitude,

Dhammanando wrote:Hi Nathan,It's not difficult to avoid it and merely requires that one stay away from malarial regions (i.e. most of the Cambodian border districts and certain of the less inhabited Burmese and Laotian border districts). This is what I did for the first 13 years, but then a couple of years ago I went to spend the rains retreat on a private island that was close enough to Cambodia to be visited by malarial mosquitoes from there. It hits you very hard when you get it for the first time, but if properly treated subsequent occurrences will get milder and milder and less and less frequent.

Best wishes,Dhammanando Bhikkhu

That is more or less what I was beginning to think. I could take a drug for a time initially but it would be impractical over the longer term. We really need to get an "Ordaining..." thread going here somewhere (mods?). It seems the odds of ending up at the gates of WPN are pretty high. Given that visa problems seem to be only intensifying lately, there will probably have to be trips into either Burma, if I am in the North, or VIetnam/Cambodia, if I am in the East, at least briefly, every three months. I have gotten used to just watching mosquitoes feed on me here, how do monks deal with them there? Blowing, hand waving? Run? Just curious. I am getting a lot better at being able to simply accept being very ill if and when these conditions arise, and of course, they will.